The winter of 1999-2000, December through
February, was the warmest on record for the United States, according
to statistics calculated by NOAA's
scientists working from the world's largest statistical weather
database. NOAA's National
Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. holds data that goes
back through the entire 105 year history of record keeping.

NOAA's seasonal winter temperature forecasts
for the past two winters have called for much of the country
having above normal temperatures. These were based on the expected
impacts of La
Niña and longer term warming trends.

The winter season preliminary temperatures
averaged 38.4 degrees F, 0.6 degrees F warmer than the previous
record, set just last year. In addition, the third warmest winter
on record occurred in 1997-1998, though tied with 1991-1992,
at 37.5 degrees F. The last three winters therefore have been
the three warmest on record. The 1999-2000 winter continues the
pattern of warm winters established in 1980 with 67 percent of
the winter seasons since then being warmer than the long-term
average.

During the past winter, every state in
the continental U.S. was warmer than its long-term average, with
21 states from California to the Midwest ranked as much above
average. Oklahoma experienced its warmest winter on record with
Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana experiencing their second warmest.

Dryness also characterized the winter season,
with 1999-2000 ranked as the 16th driest on record. Long-term
dryness intensified in the northern Gulf states with Louisiana
reporting its driest winter on record and Alabama and Mississippi
their third driest. New Mexico and Arizona also experienced much
below normal rainfall for the season. The only regions experiencing
a wet season were the northern and central Rockies and a zone
from the central Plains eastward to the Ohio Valley.

This winter Canadian air masses were not
a major factor. Many locations from the northern Plains to New
England established records for the latest date of their first
seasonal snowfall, latest date without a temperature below freezing,
longest snow-free period, or longest period between sub-zero
temperatures. Although the eastern states experienced heavy snowfalls
in the last two weeks of January, the accompanying cold air was
short lived, as February established hundreds of daily maximum
temperature records. Numerous locations from the northern Plains
to New York set or tied their all-time maximum temperature records
for the month.

These data sets are based on what is referred
to as the boreal, or northern, winter in December, January and
February, when the Northern Hemisphere experiences colder winter
weather while the Southern hemisphere is experiencing summer
weather patterns. The 1999-2000 season global land and ocean
temperatures ranked as the 6th warmest on record, following the
two warmest boreal winter seasons set in the past two years.
Ocean temperatures ranked as 10th warmest at 0.5 F degrees above
average. Land temperatures, however, remained well above average,
with this season's anomaly (departure from long-term average)
ranked as the 4th warmest on record, at 1.4 F degrees above average.
The warmest global land temperature anomalies on record occurred
in the past two boreal winters. Nearly the entire northern hemispheric
land mass was warmer than the long-term average with only North
Africa, the Mediterranean countries, Central America and parts
of extreme eastern Asia below average. Most of North America,
northern Europe, and Russia experienced well above normal warmth
for the season

Globally, precipitation was above average
through central and northern Europe, most of South America, with
the largest anomalies across southern Africa, Southeast Asia,
the Pacific Islands, and Australia. Above average rainfall in
February, compounded by a dissipating tropical system, resulted
in catastrophic flooding in countries in southeastern Africa.
Major areas of dryness were the Mediterranean countries, Japan,
and most of North America.